


Signals Crossed

by somethingvaguetodo



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Comedy, F/M, Fluff, Identity Reveal, identity confusion via technology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-07 15:39:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18876154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somethingvaguetodo/pseuds/somethingvaguetodo
Summary: It's hard to balance two identities, especially when you are trying to do it all on one phone.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So there was that little moment at the end of Timetagger where Ladybug calls Alya from her yo-yo as Marinette and I just had to think of how that would definitely be a problem if she messed up who she was calling as. Thus, this was born. Hope you enjoy this little joke of a reveal fic! :)

Ladybug sat on the roof of the Palais Garnier waiting for Chat Noir to arrive for patrol. She was in the second minute of her deep breathing exercises when her yo-yo chimed with an incoming message. 

Her eyes flew open to read Alya’s response. Unsatisfied with what it said, Ladybug chewed her lip as she thought about how to answer. 

Marinette was having a crisis. Exactly 36 minutes earlier, she had received a text message from Adrien Agreste. The message read:

_Hey Marinette! I have a photo shoot scheduled for Saturday and I just spoke to Père. He said it’s okay if you want to come along! Are you still interested?_

In her panic, Marinette had screenshot the message and forwarded it to Alya, who told her to respond immediately and accept. Marinette, however, knew it was better to wait to respond so that she didn’t look desperate. Alya’s disagreement had continued past the time she needed to leave for patrol, so she was continuing the conversation from the rooftops. 

_I want him to think I’m cool and I have a life  
Answering in a minute does not show him that at all_

Ladybug pressed the M icon at the top of her screen and sent both messages. 

A few months ago, she and Chat had been playing around with the settings on their communicators when they discovered this capability. Chat was hoping to find a way to connect to Wi-Fi so he could start an official Chat Noir Twitter, but instead found a way to add another phone number to send and receive calls and messages. She had jumped at the chance to merge her two phones, but Chat didn’t. 

“Honestly, m’lady, I love that you are the only one who can contact me when I’m transformed,” he had said with a wink. 

Marinette had rolled her eyes and immediately added her civilian phone number. It made it a lot easier to cover herself and back up her excuses if she could contact Alya and her parents when transformed. All she had to do was be careful to choose the correct sender - Marinette, not Ladybug - when contacting them. Tikki had been nervous about the potential for making a mistake but Marinette knew better. Tikki was wise, but she was also _old_ , and knew nothing about technology. 

Marinette grew up with phones, computers, and tablets. She had this handled. 

Alya had responded:  
_It’s been what, a half hour? That’s long enough M_

Ladybug rolled her eyes, but had to admit that Alya was right. 

Chat Noir touched down beside her as she was typing her response to Adrien. 

“One second, Chat. I’m making plans for the weekend.”

Chat groaned, and sat down beside her. “See this was why I didn’t like this, Ladybug. I’m trying to figure out my weekend plans too but I left my phone at home and will see later if my friend answered.” 

Ladybug refused to look at him until she finished typing. “That’s good for you, Chat.”

_Hey Adrien!!! I’d love to come to the shoot!! x_

She sent it to Alya to make sure it sounded casual enough before copying it into a new message to Adrien. Alya’s response to add a kissing emoji went unacknowledged. 

Ladybug reread the message twice to make sure there were no spelling errors. She made sure there were a different number of exclamation marks after each sentence so Adrien didn’t think she was strange or overenthusiastic.

Once she was sure it was perfect, she looked up at Chat and pressed send. 

“Done!” she announced with a smile. 

Despite his exasperation, Chat smiled back. “Excited for those plans?”

“Yes!” Now that she had finally sent the message, Ladybug could feel the excitement overriding the anxiety. “Oh, Chat, this is going to be amazing! I’ve literally dreamed of this happening but didn’t think it ever actually would!”

Chat’s smile faded. “Ladybug, do you have a date?”

Ladybug’s eyes widened in surprise. “What? No!” Then she thought about it. “Well, I guess it could maybe be thought of as a date...” She trailed off, the anxiety coming back. She grabbed hold of Chat’s arm and squeezed it tight. “Oh gosh, Chat, do you think he thinks it’s a date?!” 

He studied her closely, oddly serious. “Would that make you happy?”

Ladybug nodded rapidly. “Very happy.”

“Well in that case,” Chat said, “I hope he does think it’s a date.” At Ladybug’s surprised look, he chuckled. “I just want you to be happy, LB.” Ladybug felt herself warm up, a blush dusting her cheeks. Chat’s smile turned mischievous. “Besides, I know we’re endgame. This will be a fun story to tell our grandkids one day.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes and shoved him. “Come on you crazy cat.” She pushed herself off the roof to stand, tossing out her yo-yo and pulling the string taunt. “Race you to L’Arc de Triumph.”

~~~

Chat Noir dove through his bedroom window, releasing his transformation as he went and landing in a forward roll on the floor. Plagg spiraled out of his ring, moaning for cheese. Adrien picked himself up and walked to the bed, collapsing on his back.

He still had to complete a chemistry worksheet, shower, and change before going to sleep, but he could afford to rest for a few minutes. He picked up his phone from where it was charging on his nightstand and scrolled through his notifications. 

There were a number of unread text messages, but he looked for Marinette’s name first. Adrien was disappointed to see that she hadn’t responded to him yet. He was really hoping that she would come this Saturday to his photo shoot. 

He went to respond to Nino when he noticed one new message from a number he didn’t recognize. In fact it wasn’t a normal number at all. 

_0000M0000C0000  
SMS message_

Convinced that it was a scam or robo-message, Adrien ignored it in favor of answering Nino. 

After sending a message, he swiped out of Nino’s thread, intending to check and make sure his message to Marinette went through. On the main page of his message app, however, he could read the beginning of the message from the unknown number. 

_0000M0000C0000  
Hey Adrien!!! I’d love to come to..._

Adrien looked at it, chewing his lip as he decided what to do. It was clearly from someone who knew his name, but a scam could have found that out. If it was a scam, it would be better to ignore it. But it could also be something important, or something Nathalie or Père scheduled that he would get into trouble for ignoring. 

Deciding the curiously would kill him if he didn’t look, Adrien opened the message. 

_Hey Adrien!!! I’d love to come to the shoot!! x_

The message sounded like it came from Marinette. He was expecting a response from her about a photo shoot, and she often signed her messages with an x. 

But unless Marinette bought a new phone with an unconventional number, it couldn’t have been from her. 

Something about the number was bothering him, and he took another look.

It wasn’t so much a number as a string of zeros and two letters. He doubted it was coming from a phone. Maybe an IP address? Or an e-mail? One of his fathers’ colleagues had tried to send an e-mail to his phone number and it came out strange.

Deciding to find that old message, Adrien scrolled back through his thread, watching names pass by before something caught his attention. 

_0000M0000D0000_

He pressed it. It was a series of unanswered messages, but Adrien recognized them all. They were reminders he had sent himself: things he had to do before going to bed, homework that was due the next day, people he was supposed to reply to. But he had sent them all from Chat Noir’s baton communicator. 

Adrien’s heart was pounding, but the conclusion he was jumping to couldn’t possibly be correct. 

“Plagg,” he called out, and the kwami appeared with a wedge of Camembert clutched in his paws. “Can you take a look at this?”

Plagg floated over, and Adrien switched back to the message from _0000M0000C0000_. 

“Could this be from Ladybug?” he asked, trying to keep his voice light. 

Plagg glanced at the screen and shrugged. “You know I don’t understand all of your computer stuff,” he whined.

Adrien fiddled with his phone, trying to decide what to do. He finally gave in to his impulses. 

“Plagg, claws out!”

Chat Noir sat on his bed, cross-legged, and took out his baton. He opened the messaging app. There were only six conversations: Ladybug, Queen Bee, Carapace, Rena Rouge, his cell phone, and the one time he tried to message Hawkmoth only to discover that he had deactivated that feature. 

He clicked on Ladybug’s. There were a series of important messages about akumas and patrols, jokes, and silly memes usually sent by Chat. He navigated to her contact card. 

Her face smiled out at him, information below the photo. 

_Ladybug Miraculous  
0000M0000C0000_

Chat stopped breathing. 

He held his phone up beside the baton and compared the numbers to make sure they were exactly the same. They were. 

He released his transformation with an exhale, his baton disintegrating from his hands. Adrien was left sitting on his bed, phone in one hand and frustrated kwami landing in the other. 

“What was that for?” Plagg asked. 

Adrien decided it would be best to logically present the data he had accumulated. “I got a message from a strange number, that I now can see is actually Ladybug’s yo-yo. The message was addressed to Adrien, which means that Ladybug knows me as Adrien. It was about coming to my photo shoot, and only Marinette would be sending me a message about a photo shoot.”

Plagg blinked up at him. “So?”

“So,” Adrien echoed, his voice calm and measured, “Marinette is Ladybug.”

They both let that statement sit between them for a moment. Then Adrien started hyperventilating. 

“Marinette is Ladybug! How didn’t I notice that before? It’s so obvious! Ladybug is Marinette!” Adrien dumped Plagg unceremoniously onto his bedspread and leapt up, pacing the length of the room. 

“So Ladybug sends a text to Adrien, but she thinks that she is Marinette sending a text to Adrien. But she isn’t, she’s actually Ladybug who is also Marinette who is texting Adrien who she doesn’t know is actually Chat Noir and was right next to her at the time.”

Plagg watched him. “Sounds about right.”

Adrien ignored him. “Ladybug isn’t interested in going out with Chat Noir, but Ladybug who is Marinette said that she wants the guy she was texting to think of their plans as a date. And Ladybug was texting Adrien.”

Adrien turned to Plagg, his hands tugging at his hair. “Which means Marinette wants to date Adrien, if I haven’t lost track,” Plagg finished for him. 

Having reached the windows, Adrien rested his back against one and slid down to sit on the floor. “Which means Ladybug wants to date Chat Noir,” he said, a smile blooming on his face. “She just doesn’t know it yet.”

Adrien started laughing, and found he couldn’t stop. Now that the shock had worn off and the information was starting to sink in, he felt a little delusional. This couldn’t actually have happened, could it?

Plagg shook his head. “How are you going to tell her?”

Adrien thought about it, and suddenly a grin spread across his face. “This photo shoot is going to be fun.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of people asked for a Part 2, so here you go! I really don't have plans on continuing it past this though!!

Adrien sat in his trailer, wringing his hands together and unable to focus. Marinette was due to arrive at the photo shoot any minute, and he still didn’t know what he was going to do when he saw her. He had never been more thankful that it was summer and he was off from school, otherwise he did not think he would have lasted these few days seeing Marinette in class and not saying anything.

But now that the moment was upon him, he had no idea how to proceed. 

Plagg seemed to think that it would be best to just come out with it, and tell Marinette the truth, but Adrien wanted Marinette to figure it out for herself. His half formed plan was to let her see the Chat Noir in him and come to the conclusion on her own, but he still wasn’t sure how to do that without cluing the rest of the crew in as well.

Before he had a chance to think about it any more, Nathalie knocked at his door.

“Adrien,” she called, “Your guest is here, and Vincent is ready for you.” 

Silently thanking whichever deity that was listening that he wouldn’t have to be alone in his trailer with Marinette, Adrien took one last look in the mirror. Even though it was a warm and sunny summer day, they were shooting fall clothes, and he was wearing earth tones - brown trousers and a tan shirt, with a hickory colored trench coat over it. Already sweating from anxiety and the heat, Adrien stepped out of his trailer.

Today, they were set up in a small park alongside the Canal Saint-Martin, a quiet area in the 10ième. The small crew was milling about; Vincent was playing around with his camera, assistants setting up the lighting, and Marinette hovered uncertainly at the outskirts. She was looking distractingly pretty in a royal blue jumpsuit and a wide brimmed white sunhat with a blue ribbon. Even before discovering that Marinette was actually Ladybug and the love of his life, he found her distractingly pretty. Adrien waved to her, and she waved back, a light blush dusting her cheeks. Adrien felt his heartbeat speed up, but it helped him feel in control. Taking a deep breath as he walked toward her, he reminded himself of his goal. Just be calm, act natural, and show her that you are Chat Noir.

“Hey Marinette,” he said, coming to stop right in front of her. This close, he could see her whole face under the hat, the light dusting of freckles across her nose, her bright blue eyes. How he never realized she was Ladybug was incredible.

Marinette smiled shyly. “Hey Adrien! Thanks for inviting me!”

“Of course...” he trailed off as she reached forward and touched his jacket, right above his heart. Adrien was pleasantly surprised with her directness. 

“Is this suede?”

Adrien took a second before responding, disappointed that they were talking about his clothes. “Ultrasuede, actually. Père thinks it’s making a comeback.”

Marinette’s eyes were intensely focused on his coat. She pinched the collar between two fingers and felt the fabric. When she took a step toward him to closely inspect the stitching, Adrien stopped breathing. 

But somehow, Marinette did not seem to be as affected by their proximity as he was. “Wow, I didn’t think ultrasuede could drape like this…” she muttered, flipping his coat open to feel the inside and completely oblivious to the way that Adrien’s brain seemed to have short circuited. “What material is the lining?”

“Adrien!” Vincent called before Adrien could answer her question. Marinette jumped as if burned, dropping his coat and taking a giant step away from him. A bright red blush bloomed across her cheeks, and Adrien was glad to see that he still had some effect on her. She pulled down the brim of her hat as if trying to hide underneath it.

Adrien cleared his throat. “I better go model.”

Marinette giggled. “That’s what they pay you for.”

Adrien nodded rapidly, trying to figure out what to say. Finding out that Marinette is Ladybug had clearly crippled his ability to interact with her. “Why don’t you go over to Nathalie? She can find you a place to sit while I…” He struck a playful pose, trying to remind himself that he was supposed to be embodying Chat Noir. Marinette giggled again. 

He watched her walk away, mentally shaking himself to get back in a professional mindset. Vincent called out to him again.

Adrien went through the motions of modeling, changing his pose when Vincent requested it, his smile easy as he watched Marinette. She watched him for a while, the blush still on her face, but quickly became distracted by talking to Emmanuelle, his stylist, and Claude, his dresser. 

When Vincent stopped to check the shots, Emmanuelle waved him over.

“Your friend had an interesting idea,” she began, but Marinette cut her off.

“It’s missing something,” she said, practically bubbling out of her seat. “I would say it needs a pop of color, like a burgundy or even a forest green, but then I was thinking you need a pattern.” She jumped up. “Can I see what else is in your trailer?”

Barely waiting for his confirmation, Marinette grabbed his hand and pulled him toward his trailer, leaving Adrien to wonder if she had somehow figured him out and was just trying to drive him crazy. He stood by the door as Marinette rushed to the rack of clothes inside, rifling through the items on their hangers. 

“No… that won’t work… maybe if I had my sewing machine…” Marinette muttered to herself, dismissing every item. Adrien watched her, so enthralled with the fact that she looked like Ladybug trying to work out the use of a Lucky Charm that he almost forgot he was supposed to be acting differently around her.

She held up an olive green shirt as he walked closer. “Hmmm… this doesn’t really match your skin tone,” she commented.

“I’ve heard I pull off black pretty well,” he said, an admittedly paltry clue. Marinette didn’t even look at him.

“Black would throw off the earth tones.”

Adrien sighed, almost defeated. 

“See…” she pulled a black vest out of the rack and held it up to him. Suddenly, she gasped. “Wait, Adrien, that’s perfect!” She yanked the vest off of the hanger and turned it inside out. The lining was a leopard print: tans and oranges and browns and blacks.

“A cat print?” Adrien asked, smirking as he shrugged off his jacket and took the vest from Marinette. “It’s almost like Chat Noir! Get it, because it’s black on one side and cat on the other?”

Marinette hummed, but didn’t show any sign that the comment meant more to her. “Leave it open?” she asked, pulling at the two halves. “Or close it? Because the buttons are now on the inside.”

Adrien was starting to get a little upset. He clearly didn’t stand a chance next to the allure of fashion.

“I can button it,” he assured her, but she was already reaching for it herself. Her fingers were quick and nimble, but it was tricky to close from the inside out. Adrien felt his heart rate pick up again. Her knuckles brushed against his stomach as she coaxed the buttons into their holes, and he shivered, unable to stop himself. Despite all of his fantasies of turning into a suave superhero to gain her attention, Adrien knew that most of the time, Chat Noir was a wreck around Ladybug. Why should this have turned out any differently?

Marinette finished the last button and smoothed the fabric down, both hands running down his abdomen. 

“How does that feel?”

“It’s purr-fect,” he said, a last ditch effort to hold on to his plan to reveal himself to her.

Marinette looked up at him, her eyes wide. She seemed to finally stop and think about what he was saying, curiously bright in her gaze. Adrien weighed his options, trying to decide what to do next, and trying to talk himself out of just leaning down and kissing her. 

The door burst open behind him, and they sprang apart.

“Let me see what you’ve done,” Emmanuelle said, totally oblivious to what she just interrupted. “Vincent wants to finish this outfit and move on.” Marinette squeaked, clearly embarrassed, and pushed past Emmanuelle in her haste to leave the trailer. Emmanuelle looked at Adrien, confused.

Adrien sighed, completely defeated.

By the time the photo shoot ended and Adrien bid Marinette goodbye, he was more than a little upset. The drive home was silent, and even Nathalie could tell that he was not in the mood to hear about his schedule for the next day. 

Adrien rushed into the house, ignoring the fact that his dinner was probably ready for him in the dining room, went immediately to his room. He slammed his bedroom door behind him, paying no mind to how annoyed his father would be for his actions. Despite his best attempts all day at showing his Chat side, far more than he ever dared to as Adrien before, Marinette didn’t seem to notice at all. In fact, she was far more preoccupied with everything fashion and technical about the photo shoot that she didn’t even seem to notice him at times. 

“I don’t understand, Plagg,” Adrien whined, throwing himself down onto his bed, his face landing in his pillow. “What should I have done?”

Plagg landed on the pillow beside him. “Maybe you should have just told her.”

“Told her!” Adrien shot up, his torso twisting uncomfortably until he was in a sitting position. “I can’t just tell her my identity! That’s the one thing that she has been so adamant about all along.”

Plagg made a remarkably skeptical expression for a being without an eyebrow he could raise. “But it was her fault for revealing her identity. She should have been more careful with the messages if she didn’t want you to know who she is.”

Adrien thought about it, having to acknowledge that Plagg was right. Ladybug really couldn’t fault him if he revealed his identity, because she did it first. Actually, she _really_ couldn’t fault him if he revealed his identity in the exact same way.

“I think I have an idea,” he said, grinning. “Plagg, claws out!”

Before Plagg had a chance to respond, Adrien’s transformation washed over him, and Chat Noir vaulted out of his window. He traversed the rooftops quickly, coming to a halt on the roof of his school building. It gave him a perfect view of Marinette’s parent’s bakery, and their adjoining house. The round window on the top floor was brightly lit, indicating that Marinette was inside. Chat pulled out his baton.

_From: 0000M0000D0000_  
_To: Marinette Dupain-Cheng_  
_Hey Marinette! I’m so glad that you were able to come to my shoot today! I don’t remember the last time I had so much fun doing a work thing :) Hopefully you can join me again sometime, or we can do something else?? I love having the time to hang out with you outside of school xx Adrien_

Chat reread the message twice, making sure there were no spelling errors. He made sure there weren’t too many exclamation marks that would make him seem strange or overenthusiastic. He considered adding a kissing emoji at the end, but left the two x’s.

He crossed his fingers on his left hand, hit send, and put his baton away. Chat settled comfortably onto the roof, closed his eyes, and decided to try those deep breathing exercises that Ladybug was so fond of. 

Chat was sure that even without his enhanced hearing, he would have detected the high-pitched scream that emanated from Marinette’s room two minutes later.


End file.
